Monday, August 18, 2008

Trip to Iguazu



Here we are taking the train on the first day to walk to La Garanta de Diablo (Devil's Throat), which is the largest elevation of the falls. We'd just gotten off the plane and made it to our hotel, when I, being the taskmaster, decided we had to gogogo! I included this picture because I look like I am going to sing. That's Hance on the left and Betty in the middle.





So, after we got off the train, you walk for like half a mile on bridges over the river. I took this picture as we arrived at Garganta. The falls really sneak up on you, because they are only about 20 yards behind us in this picture, but it's still pretty tranquil and quiet.




It's pretty much impossible to capture the power of Garganta. This is me with like 10% of Garganta behind me. The spray is just unbelievable; the power and the noise...




We had some beers on my balcony that night, and it's pretty crazy to hear the roar and see thin whisps of mist off in the distance as you fall asleep. This is the view from the hotel room. By the way, that's Brazil off to the left.





I kept threatening to wake the girls up early, however I got sick due to the incompetence of the Sheraton (I strongly recommend that you do not stay at the Sheraton at Iguazu), so we only got out at like 10am. Still, it was a pretty, sunny though still somewhat chilly morning. This isn't Garganta, this is the other side.




Another picture of the non-Garganta falls from the Paseo Inferior trail that we did the second day. Betty took a spill and probably still has a bruise. We nearly got attacked by like 20 koates. Or at least Betty thought so. We took a trip to the island and then hung out on the beach that you can sorta see in the very bottom left of this picture. We did the trails up there, one of the view points is pretty fantastic. Then we did the boat ride where they take you under the falls, and you just get completely and thoroughly soaked even though you're only like 1/3 of the way under the falls and you don't stay in very long. The water was cold. We then went back to the beach, sunned for a bit and dried out our clothes. I ended up talking to some Crusaders from Tennessee. Pretty random. Finally we got dry, completed the trail and went back to our hotel. Ate lunch while watching the falls (basically the same view as from our hotel room, see above). I felt pretty sick and went to bed, while the girls went to dinner and got massages.





I was planning on waking the girls up to go watch the sun rise, but it was cloudy, so they got to sleep in. Here we are on the Paseo Superior, jumping. The Paseo Superior basically is bridges and viewing points that rim the falls that you can see above. Pretty neat.


So, none of the pictures so far have really captured the raw power, and the stunning number of rainbows. Maybe this offers the slightest glimpse.
There was so much spray (especially at Garganta). In fact, part of the reason that I'm not posting more of the pictures from Garganta is that there was too much spray to really see much on film.


Here's a kind of side shot


This is how close you were to the falls. Like 2 feet. See the bottom? I don't either.

I didn't take my camera on this trip, so these are all pictures by Betty. She has a better camera and wildly superior skills. She did a great job; it's ridiculously tough to capture the essence on film.

















1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the compliment on my photography skills! :)